Just added 24 new caps from The Work and the Glory, Part 1. As I
feared, some critics were rigth: This movie is part a Mormon
infomercial, part an overlong Little House on the Prairie episode.
The (bi-dimensional) characters and the (boring and trite) plot are
secondary to the message. And said message is one of tolerance, but
tolerance for Mormons only, because the rest of us are a bunch of
biggots who don't believe in Joseph Smith (unless you are married or
engaged to someone who does believe in the Prophet, of course). I
guess I may be biassed against this movie because I grew up as a
Catholic, but I don't even believe in Jesus Christ's divinity.
However, as a guy who loves movies, I can never enjoy one where the
more a character sinks into evil, the longer his beard grows. And
that's what passes for character development here. Brenda is as good
as ever, but she doesn't have too much to do (sounds familiar?). But
the worst part is that the producers are planning to make 4 to 5
sequels (parts 2 and 3 are filming right now, as you can check in
earlier messages), so I'm afraid Brenda is going to be stuck for a
while in this crap, just as she is stuck in her hardly seen role of
Mary Alice Young.
By the way, don't miss the DH season finale this sunday. Looks like
Brenda may actually show up in a several scenes (at last).

Hey everybody...love the show but do you think we need to start a
letter writing campaign to see if we can't somehow get Brenda on the
show as a permenant cast memeber.  While she has a pleasant voice over
I want to see more of Brenda.  She's a great actress and not being used
to her potential.

Tommy in NC

During the last couple of weeks I've revamped some of the albums (Red
Dragon, Sledge Hammer and Sports Night), replacing the old pictures
with better ones. Hope that you like them.

Luis

VONORE -- She walked across the muddy gravel parking lot and
newcomers on the movie set did a double take, much like the ladies
of Wisteria Lane would if they saw her likeness reappear in their
neighborhood one day.

``Desperate Housewives'' co-star Brenda Strong, who appears and
narrates the series as deceased suburban housewife Mary Alice, had
finished a day of shooting for the second part of ``The Work and The
Glory'' series Thursday and was headed toward the dining tent.

She faces an intense schedule this summer for the epic independent
series of Mormon films while juggling her work on the popular
television series.

Strong believes the series will appeal to people outside The Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faith. The first movie, ``The
Work and the Glory,'' was released on DVD May 3.

``I'm not Mormon, and what appeals to me about the film are common
themes of love, of fighting for something you believe in, of losing
faith,'' she said. ``You don't have to be Mormon to have that appeal
to you. I think everyone on a daily basis struggles with, am I doing
the right thing in my life? I think those are things that come up in
almost every scene -- `Am I on the right path, or am I deluding
myself?'''

``The Work and The Glory'' is a love story set against the backdrop
of religious intolerance in the American frontier in the 1800s, in
Palmyra, N.Y. After homesteading in Vermont, the Benjamin Steed
family makes their way to Palmyra where they attempt to settle
peacefully. Eventually they find that the family they hired to help
clear the land is at the center of a religious controversy -- a
controversy that threatens to tear the family apart.

Strong plays Mary Ann Steed, the matriarch of the Steed family.

``I came from pioneer stock,'' said Strong, who is from Portland,
Ore. ``My great-grandfather came across the Oregon Trail with one
pair of boots that he saved for winter. He actually came across
barefoot. My own grandmother and my mother were not dissimilar to
the character of Mary Ann.

``Mary Ann Steed has a lot of the qualities I admire in my own
lineage -- women of strength, women of moral character, women who in
the face of difficulty found a way to keep their families together
in a loving, positive way. And faith being part of that connection.
My grandmother was the daughter of a minister.''

She likes the contrast of the historical film to the modern
sensibilities of work comprising her 20-year acting career. She has
been seen in some of the country's most popular television shows,
such as ``Seinfeld,'' ``Murphy Brown'' and ``Cheers.''

While working on a movie and a television series, Strong, her
husband and son, have explored Tennessee. She said she's hiked in
the Cherokee National Forest, been to the Grand Ole Opry, taken a
day at a spa in Knoxville, dined in Maryville and caught a late
showing of ``The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' at the Foothills
Theater.

The foliage of Tennessee reminds her of Oregon, where she grew up.
Her next film project is a comedy written by Tom Arnold called ``The
Kid and I.''

In the meantime, there is the mounting popularity of ``Desperate
Housewives.'' She's hopeful but cautious about is longevity.

``After so many years of being on shows that got six episodes, or
only had a pilot and never got picked up -- 20 years of that you
kind of go, `Oh well, we'll see.'''

``Desperate Housewives'' was a hot property from the start.

``We were all very aware that this was a coveted script from the
beginning, because everybody wanted to audition for this script and
everybody did,'' she said. ``And (producer) Mark Cherry's genius
script was the reason for that. Even if you've been disappointed or
not, you kind of go, `Let's hope this puppy has legs.' But we didn't
know it was going to be a greyhound.''

She is optimistic about the character Mary Alice's longevity on the
show. After all, her character can't be killed, and her husband
can't divorce her. They can't move her out of the neighborhood,
either.

But how long the show will go she wouldn't project. Strong does have
an idea of what kind of future roles she'd like, and one of them
involves creating stories instead of interpreting characters.

She and a writing partner have film and television treatments in the
works.

``I think my next role is going to be more as a producer, as opposed
to as an actress.''

Like the pioneering Steed family trudging across the plains to Salt
Lake City, the series of movie adaptations of the Mormon-themed
pioneer epic "The Work and the Glory" is steadily moving forward.
    Taking a queue from such popular movie series as "The Lord of the
Rings," "The Matrix" and "Back to the Future," the next two chapters
of Gerald Lund's popular nine-book series about the history of the
Mormon trek will be filmed together to save money and sets and keep
the cast together, the film's producers announced Thursday.
    But the next two films will be helmed by a different director,
Sterling VanWagenen, co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival and
film institute and producer of the 1985 Sundance favorite, "A Trip
to Bountiful." He also is director of the School of Film and Digital
Media at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. The films are
written by Matt Whitaker, who penned the other Mormon-themed
movie, "Saints and Soldiers."
    Scott Swofford, who is producing the next two sequels of "The
Work and the Glory," said he picked a different director for those
films (Russ Holt wrote and directed the first film) because of the
changing nature of the story.
    "The challenges of the characters get very complex now," Swofford
said. The books are also more violent, though the filmmakers are
expected to deliver a film with a PG-13 or lower rating. The first
movie was rated PG.
    Production, which will include 55 days of shooting in Tennessee,
upstate New York and Utah, begins in two weeks for another pre-
Thanksgiving opening later this year. The third film will be
released next year.
    The first film in the series, "Pillar of Light," debuted Nov. 24
and has earned $3.2 million at the box office, far less than the
$7.4 million spent to make it - not including $900,000 for
marketing.
    But the film's executive producer, auto dealer and Utah Jazz
owner Larry Miller, said he expects to at least break even with the
movie's upcoming video release on Mother's Day, which is part of the
decision to move forward with the next two sequels.
    "The early orders on the DVD will exceed any other LDS film," he
said.
    The series tells the tale of Benjamin and Mary Ann Steed (Sam
Hennings and "Desperate Housewives' " Brenda Strong, respectively)
and their sons Joshua and Nathan as they journey from their
homestead in New York in 1830 to the Salt Lake Valley.
    All of the cast is returning, along with new characters, and all
the actors have been hired except for Utah's first governor and
former Mormon prophet Brigham Young, who is introduced in the second
movie.
    "We have just had the darndest time," VanWagenen said about
finding the right actor. "Maybe the problem is me because I haven't
been satisfied yet."
    Producing the "Work and the Glory" series has been more a labor
of love than a business project for Miller, who dabbled in the film
industry when he financed "Brigham City."
    But while he says it's his money on the line - each of the next
two films will cost about the same as the first - he doesn't expect
to be too involved.
    "It's a business I don't understand too well, so I feel I have to
trust the people more who know," he said. "It's like I never told
Jerry Sloan how to coach and I never told him who to put in the
game, and I'm not going to tell them [the director and producer]
what to do."

Just added 4 new pictures from Brenda's micro appearance on the DH
episode "The Ladies Who Lunch". And this is something I found about
the season finale from her own mouth:

--"Desperate Housewives' " Brenda Strong - who plays the dearly
departed narrator Mary Alice on the hit ABC nighttime soap - reports
even she still manages to be surprised by little nuggets being
revealed about her character's suicide in upcoming episodes. The
troupe is down to shooting the last segment for the season, and she
says, "There are certain aspects of my mystery that I had a
suspicion about, but there are other aspects that completely took
the rug out from under me ... you'll find out a lot more of the
mystery of why Mary Alice committed suicide and why Martha Huber
(the murdered nosy neighbor, played by Christine Estabrook) was
blackmailing her." Meanwhile, Strong says she'll get a decided
change of pace from the mayhem, murder and mystery of the posh,
upscale Wisteria Lane on "Housewives" this hiatus. "I shot
an epic drama about an early American pioneer family last summer
called 'The Work and the Glory,' and I'm embarking on two sequels
that we'll be doing back-to-back in Tennessee from April to June,"
says Strong. "I play the mother of the pioneer family. It's fun
because I get to wear corsets and no makeup, and I'm around teams of
mules and horse manure." Things certainly foreign to her "Desperate
Housewives" character, Mary Alice, quips Strong, "although I'm sure
she fertilized her garden."

Congratulations to Brenda on her birthday. To celebrate her
turning...like...25 today (OK, maybe a few more, but who cares?),
I've just created a new album with pictures from several of her
public appearances during the last few months. Most of these
pictures are from the-suburbs.com, a great DH site where you can
find many more (I've selected just a few of them because of the 5Mb
limit). Now, lest just pray that we can see so much of her in some
DH episode soon.

Luis

ALL

I just uploaded a few photos to the Files section.

Hurding

Brenda will be on the Tony Danza show this Friday, February 23 (the
day after tomorrow).

Brenda will be on ABC's The View on Friday 18 Feb. (tomorrow) just a
few hours after her appearance in Good Morning America. It seems
she'll be just as guest and won't co-host the show like the other
housewives did.
Again, if you can watch the show, any sort of recap will be much
appreciated.

Luis

Brenda will be in Good Morning America on Friday, 18 Feb. (the day
after tomorrow) at 7:00 AM. Julia Roberts will also appear (just in
case anybody here is a fan of her). If any of you can watch the
show, please let us know whatever Brenda says about herself and Mary
Alice. Thanks in advance.

Luis

Brenda is featured in an interview in next week's "TV Guide".
It is a very nice article/interview with her.

Karen

UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. — Mom put a bullet through her brain. Dad
bludgeoned the nosy neighbor lady with a blender. And their psycho
son may or may not have killed his baby sister. Could the Young
family of TV's Desperate Housewives get any more dangerous?
Oh, yes. The evil insanity has only just begun, as we'll begin to
see Sunday night in the first of Housewives' only two new episodes
this month (9 ET/PT, ABC).

On a recent evening outing to the Young family home on Wisteria
Lane, the actors who portray TV's most dysfunctional family — Brenda
Strong (Mary Alice), Mark Moses (Paul) and Cody Kasch(Zach) — found
it a little unsettling to be grouped together.

Aside from a brief scene in the pilot showing Mary Alice bringing
Paul and Zach their breakfast, the family has not been depicted as a
unit.

(After her mysterious suicide, Mary Alice has been heard only as the
show's narrator, shown in brief flashbacks and, once, envisioned as
a haunting presence by Felicity Huffman's Lynette.)

"Usually it's just Zach and I sitting at the dinner table with the
ghost of Mom," says Moses, 44, a happily married father of two sons,
who is in a particularly good mood this evening. He just shot his
first kissing scene — the genesis of a possible romance set to hatch
in early March.

Around the holidays, Housewives creator Marc Cherry took each of
these three actors aside to let him or her in on what the rest of
America is dying to know: what horrible secret occurred 12 years ago
involving Zach's little sister, Dana.

"We got into a situation where the scenes weren't making much sense
to us because our characters knew the secret and we didn't," says
Kasch, 17, who lives with his parents, two brothers and sister, all
actors. When Cherry revealed the big secret to him, Kasch was
dumbfounded. "It's the least likely thing you can think of. So
incredibly random — but so great!"

Cherry pulled Strong aside at a Christmas party and, as she recalls,
told her, "I think it's time I told you about Mary Alice." The
actress says part of her didn't want to know. But at the same time,
she was relieved to finally "make peace" with her character's
past. "It deepened my sense of compassion for Mary Alice. It was
really hard for her to live with what she did."

Says Strong, the real-life married mom of a 10-year-old son who goes
by his middle name, Zak: "The beauty of the Young family is this
terrible secret binds us and tears us apart."

The 44-year-old actress survived her own personal family crisis when
her brother, Steve, after a painfully drawn-out 20-year illness,
succumbed to a brain tumor when Strong was 29.

"His progressive illness brought our family together," she
says, "and when he died it sort of healed the family. I know it
sounds trite, but I think we all have people who are looking out for
us."

Kasch remembers his hippie-like family being considered the town
oddballs when they lived in Ojai, Calif., before relocating to
L.A. "We endured a lot of segregation," Kasch says. Kasch and his
siblings were not welcomed into certain schools or social functions,
but that, he says, "made our family stronger."

But there seems little hope of a happy ending for the oddball
Youngs. And the same might be true for at least one of their
portrayers. Considering Paul's violent streak, how long can Moses
remain part of the cast before his character is stopped? Cherry says
he expects to bring all three Youngs back next season — and Strong
is contracted to be both heard and seen throughout the series'
anticipated seven-year run.

"I've been led to believe by our creator that Mary Alice will
continue to live on through Zach," Strong says. "Mary Alice will not
die with the mystery."

This Sunday, more pieces of the puzzle come together. And beginning
this spring, flashbacks of Mary Alice will begin airing as the
mystery reaches its shocking season-ending climax.

No one is looking forward to those scenes more than Strong, who
acknowledges some frustration over playing a rarely seen character.

"There is an element of restriction that comes inherently with being
dead," she says in that melodic Mary Alice tone. "But I have to say
it's a really great gig."

(Moderator's comment: I'm afraid I'm not too happy about this.
Sounds like Mary Alice is going to become just another Julia Brown.
And if we are seeing so little of her this season, we'll probably
see even less when the mistery is over.)

According to TVTome, the entire DH cast will be on Oprah tonight for
her Desperate Housewives spoof. Then they will be interviewed (along
with Marc Cherry) on ABC's Primetime Live at 10  p.m.

UNIVERSAL CITY – If Mary Alice Young sounds as if she knows
something you don't, it's because she does.

Among other things, Mary Alice knows why she committed suicide.

Mary Alice, of course, is one of the "Desperate Housewives," ABC's
Sunday night comic soap opera that is TV's phenomenon of the season.
She shot herself in the first episode, but remains a powerful
presence, a droll, philosophical, omniscient observer of the
adventures of her friends along flower-lined Wisteria Lane.

The flowers are fake, by the way. And so is Wisteria Lane, a row of
generic suburban bungalows on the Universal Studios back lot. ABC
threw a party there Sunday night, and the bus to Wisteria Lane wound
by Cabot Cove, where Jessica Fletcher solved all the local murders,
and zipped past several Old West towns and churches that were no
more than steeples and false fronts.

Peeking inside the doors of Wisteria Lane and making inquiries, one
learns that the outside of one house is the place where Mary Alice
once lived, while the interior is the home of the obsessive Bree
(Marcia Cross). Once upon a time, it was the home of Ward and June
Cleaver and the Beaver.

And Gabrielle's (Eva Longoria) house? The frat house in "Animal
House." Next door: the Munsters' gloomy mansion.

Whatever happens on Wisteria Lane, the voice of Mary Alice is never
far away. She's played by tall, long-haired, green-eyed Brenda
Strong, owner of her own yoga studio, and once known to fans
of "Seinfeld" as "the braless wonder."

Strong, who lately finds that people recognize her by her voice when
she's placing her order at Starbucks, got the job, said creator-
producer Marc Cherry, because that voice made him feel "comfy. It's
like a warm blanket just enveloped me."

Maybe so, but Strong's intonation also seems to say she knows more
than she's telling. She does.

Only seen on screen a few times so far, beginning with that opening
suicide sequence, Strong will get on camera more often in flashbacks
in future episodes.

"You'll see flashbacks from 15 years ago, and you'll see my entire
back story," Strong said in an interview following a press
conference with Cherry and the cast. "So Mary Alice is going to have
a long journey from 15 years forward."

Back when Mary Alice pulled the trigger, Strong didn't know why.
Cherry finally explained it to her at a cast Christmas party. She
wishes he hadn't. "It was much nicer when I didn't know, because
ignorance in some ways is bliss," she said. "It's a huge
responsibility knowing the inner weavings of the wives of Wisteria
Lane, as twisted as it is."

When she did learn the answer, Strong said, she was "very impressed.
I had no clue that that's where it was going. There were little
tidbits, but I didn't get the whole puzzle."

Her delivery, she admitted, carries "a sense of irony, of 'I wish I
could tell them what I know now.' So there's a little sardonic twist
to the voice. I definitely enjoy those lines. I find it wherever I
can."

She also admitted to "a little bit of a secret" in the quality of
her voice-over, "a little bit of an 'I'm withholding and I'll tell
you when I'm ready' kind of a thing. Mary Alice is the keeper of the
secrets in certain respects, and she will be the revealer of certain
intimate secrets as each episode progresses."

Strong said she was having a difficult time finding exactly the
right tone for Mary Alice's voice until director Michael Edelstein
told her to "'drop your voice down into your heart.' As soon as that
happened, the tone changed, the feel of it changed, the entire
resonance of my own experience of the words changed."

The change also allowed Strong to establish her emotional connection
to Mary Alice, "because she really loved these women, and if she had
it to do over again, she wouldn't have committed suicide. Now she
sees that everybody is struggling, and she could have lived through
this, it would have been OK."

So, why did Mary Alice commit suicide? She didn't say.

Hi Brenda, Congratulations on Desperate Housewifes it is a fantastic
show. Of course we hope to see more of you than to just hear your
voice. I want you to think back to your first job, did you work in a
little drive-in resturant in Rhododendron, Oregon?? You worked for my
parents there and I went to Welches Grade school with you. I have
followed your career on the big and small screen for years. I knew in
school you would be something your voice was so beautiful even then.
I know you are very busy but if you have the time to drop me an e-
mail to see if you remember me. Thanks and congrats again, Janet

--- In brendastrong@yahoogroups.com, ger_diego <no_reply@y...> wrote:
>
> --- In brendastrong@yahoogroups.com, "Anonymous" <wamozart_7@y...>
> wrote:
> > does she have big feet?
> We´re still waiting for someone who can tell her shoe size and
height.
Looks like she has a huge feet, at least size 12 or 13.

--- In brendastrong@yahoogroups.com, "Anonymous" <wamozart_7@y...>
wrote:
> does she have big feet?
We´re still waiting for someone who can tell her shoe size and height.

DH IS…..!?!?!

Wow! Watching Desperate Housewives is such a THRILL! I love it more
than any other tv show currently on air! DH is MORE than a guilty
pleasure...it's a fine drama with quality writing, direction &
acting. Is DH a drama? A comedy? A dramedy? Who knows? Anyways, if u
blink while watching DH, or God forbid, miss a show (!!!!!), u miss A
LOT!

While watching the Jan. 16th show (and all others), I noticed some
things that DON'T add up:
1- What's going on with Juantia Solis? Is she still in a coma?
2- Where's John? Is he tired of having sex with Gabrielle?
3- When Susan went to Felicia to inquire about her setting Edie's
house ablaze, Susan introduced herself as MRS. Mayer. Susan IS
divorced from Karl Mayer; why is she all of a sudden Mrs. Mayer?
4- Edie, too, introduced herself as Mrs. Britt, even though she's
divorced. Why would she do that?
5- Mike looks like he remodeled his house- it looks very different
from past scenes. Didn't his house have a front porch? Last night's
ep had no front porch
6- Where's Mike's dog?
7- Notice how Brenda Strong (Mary Alice Young) is mysteriously absent
from the media buzz surrounding DH? She is, if not, the most
important character on the show. Mary Alice is like the thread that
binds the majority of characters together. Mary Alice has only
appeared twice on DH.
8- On the Jan. 9 ep, the missing persons flier for Mrs. Huber
indictes Wisteria Lane is located in Fairview, Eagle State, 29102, in
area code 456. ZIP code 29102 is Manning, SC, and area code 456 is
not currently in use. I assumed Wisteria Lane was located in
Fairview, California.
9- Did Rex really have an affair with Maisy Gibbons or is he hiding
something else? When Bree went to Maisy's home in the Dec. 19 ep,
Maisy said that Rex had needs. Bree then asked if those needs were
sexual, and Maisy responded with a grin. Does Maisy's grin confirm
Rex adultery?
10- When DH began on Oct. 3, she had 4 kids- all boys (3 triplets & 1
baby- a baby is age 23 months or younger, remember?) Then all of a
sudden, Lynette has 2 twin boys, a boy that's about 1 year younger
than the twins, and a baby GIRL?
11- When Bree was in Dr. Albert Goldfine's office, she took a tape
that consisted of Mary Alice's therapy session with the doctor. What
does the tape reveal?
12- Lynette kicks a Ritalin addiction in about 2 wks? Is that
possible?
13- When the police find the box of human remains that Paul
discarded, it's known that the remains are that of a young woman.
Who's the woman?
14- There are so many missing/dead people: Mary Alice (of course!);
Dana, the baby that Zach said he killed; Mrs. Martha Huber, who was
killed by Paul; Dierde, was involved with Mike; the mysterious man's
daughter, he hired Mike to find out who killed her
15- What happened to Kendra?
16- Why did Mike break into Mrs. Fome's place?
17- When Juanita is telling Gabrielle about her past while knitting,
she said that God helped her find a way to protect Carlos from his
abusive father. Did she kill her husband?
18- In the Dec. 3 ep, Karl is speaking to Susan in her driveway is is
scratching himself repeatedly. Anyone noticed that?
19- When Gorge Williams sits himself down to dinner, he inserts a
tape of the pharmacy security camera in which he's talking to Bree.
As he's eating, Mary Alice's monologue says "Some of us spend our
entire lives watching from the sidelines." Has he been stalking Bree?
20- I read somewhere on a website that Edie has a son. Where is he?
21- Edie is serial divorcee; she's been married three times. Where
are her ex's?
22- Was it secretly implied that Gabrielle was molested by her step-
father?

Email me: z9mzz9@...
Thanks! God Bless! Keep watching the BEST show on tv, DH!

Mary Alice Knows What She Did: I also had the pleasure of sitting
down with my favorite dead girl, Brenda Strong, who plays dearly
departed Desperate Housewife Mary Alice, the show's narrator and the
housewife who killed herself in the opening scenes of the pilot
(after someone found out her dirty secret).

Borrowing a line from Teri Hatcher, you know what I had to ask,
right? "Mary Alice, what did you do?!"

Brenda burst out laughing. "See, this is really hard, because every
interview up until now, I've not known, and I've been able to say
no, and 'They haven't told me,' " she said. "But I, I--I'm blushing.
Because I actually do know now."

Fighting my urge to lunge at her throat and squeeze the truth out of
that pretty little neck (she really is the loveliest person in the
world, but all's fair in love and spoiler-sleuthing!), I held it
together and asked, "Were you surprised?"

"Um, yes and no," she said. "There were certain elements that I had
guessed on a lark, and I went 'Oh! I was right?! Oh, that was just,
that was a leap in the dark.' So, there are certain things I
intuited, and then certain things just completely sideswiped me. I
had no clue that that's where they were going, so I was really happy
to go 'Ooh! This is gonna get juicy!' "

So, does she still consider herself a good girl? "Yes, I still see
the good in her." Hmmm...tricky, tricky.

  You Everwood fans know that Brenda has played dead before. In fact,
her death also set that series in motion, inspiring hubby Andy
(Treat Williams) to head to the 'wood. "I'm sure I will be back,"
she said of her WB stint. "I always come back some time around the
holidays, when things get much more heartfelt, and they need to have
kind of a maternal figure in there to remind them that that part of
their lives is missing."

(Moderator's comment: OH, SHIT, NO!)

As for Mary Alice, she said she'll "be doled out like really good
chocolate. You're not gonna get too much of me at once. That way the
Mary Alice mystery gets to pace itself. Just enough to keep the
audience interested and to make sure that they remember who I am."

(Moderator's comment: I'm afraid that means little to no screen
time).

Desperate, yet Strong
Brenda's a dead but critical housewife

Sister Mary Alice will explain it all for you.

She had to explain it to me. Though I am a confirmed Desperate
Housewives addict — one of 30 million in the U.S. and Canada —
circumstances prevented me from watching (or even taping) the
pivotal, much-anticipated "One Will Die!" episode of two weeks past.

Last Sunday, ABC pre-empted the show for that gooey Mitch Albom
Heaven movie — CTV ran a Wives repeat. So by the time (9 p.m.) last
night's episode aired, I was going through withdrawal and feeling
altogether out of the loop.

But who better to catch me up with the latest dirty doings on
mysterioso Wisteria Lane than Mary Alice herself, the suicidal
suburbanite portrayed by Brenda Strong, whose posthumous narration
observes and analyzes the characters and their secret motivations —
excluding her own reasons for taking her own life in the opening
scenes of the series pilot.

It all, she says, comes down to "the note."

"You knew (going in) that one of the desperate housewives was going
to die," Strong recaps, easing me up to speed. "The one that they
were pointing to, the one that they thought had written `the note,'
was Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan's slutty divorcée). But it
wasn't. It was Martha Hubert (the blackmailing Gladys Kravitz
character played by Christine Estabrook). The note was written on
Martha Hubert's stationery. Martha Hubert wrote the note.

"Turns out she was very desperate. Her husband had left her without
much of a pension, and she was hoping to glean a little money from
me. She hadn't realized, in writing the note, that it would drive me
to suicide. Not that she felt too particularly bad about that.

"So my husband went over to find out how she could do such a thing.
And in a rage of temper he hit her with the very blender that she
had borrowed from me, and then kept after I died.

"What goes around comes around. You've got to love the irony in
that."

And we do, all 30 million of us. The show's delicious, demented
sense of irony is what got us all hooked in the first place.

"Isn't it great?" Strong enthuses. "And all those little details
just make you even love it more. Because if you're paying attention,
all those layers are in there. It's a brilliant mix of humour and
humanity.

"It's really the darkest part of all of us, and the lightest part of
all of us," she continues. "We can all relate to everything that
each one of these characters is going through. We may not take it to
the heightened degree of the entertainment value, but it's
relatable. It's grounded in reality."

Which makes it that much more fun to play for the actresses
involved — in addition to those mentioned elsewhere, there is the
former TV Lois Lane, movie Bond girl and Radio Shack pitchwoman,
Teri Hatcher, and Felicity Huffman, the actress wife of William H.
Macy, and Strong's old rival for the fictional affections of Peter
Krause (Six Feet Under) on Aaron Sorkin's Sports Night.

"That's the thing that stands out for me," says Strong. "On most
shows, you'll get one storyline, and that'll be the primary
storyline, and that character gets most of the `juice' that week.
Every single week, each one of these women makes an emotional
journey. They're being written for, and the complexity of their
characters is coming out.

"And Mary Alice is the one that frames the contextual viewpoint for
the audience to really receive these characters on multi-faceted
levels, and not just a superficial one. And exposes their flaws and
their longings. Which is kind of a delicate position to be in.

"The beauty of it is that Mary Alice's character gets to be the
moral and emotional voice, and ultimately the heart of the show. I
get to be the through-line between all of these characters, and the
glue that kind of holds them together. So, in a weird way, I'm in a
position to be the most intimate, and yet the most withdrawn.

"Because, at the same time, there is that distance ... I'm not
involved on a day-to-day basis, interacting with the characters. And
as an actress you want to be."

But on the rare occasions she does get on set with the others, "It's
like a party," Strong says, "because we're so happy to see each
other.

"The way the show is often shot, it'll be Eva (Longoria)'s day, or
Marcia (Cross)'s day, where the focus is all on that one character.
So they don't get to interact much either, unless I'm around.
Because whenever I am on set, it's all of us, because it's a
flashback about all of us. So they're always happy to see me."

Though the ghost of Mary Alice has been popping up more lately, in
dreams and the occasional flashback sequence, the character was
initially intended to be seen much less than heard. Indeed, that's
how Strong won the mostly off-camera role — as opposed to her
actual, practical experience playing the ghost of a dead wife, on
Everwood (which, as it happens, also featured Marcia Cross).

In the original Desperate Housewives pilot, the Mary Alice role was
played by Twin Peaks' Sheryl Lee.

"Originally, we sort of saw Mary Alice as this very ethereal
creature," producer Michael Edelstein had explained at the series'
press launch last summer. "We cast Sheryl Lee, and she was perfect
for the part. But when we laid in the voice-over narration ... (we
realized) it needed more of a comic life. It needed more of a
persona. It needed somebody more present and less ethereal.

"We brought in many different actresses, recorded five or six of
them and then just played it back and listened to their voices. And
Brenda's voice, among all the people we interviewed, really `popped'
the most. Brenda was just the best person for the part, and we feel
really blessed to have her with us."

And, for all her apparent isolation, Strong says the feeling is
mutual. "I kind of have my own family, all alone there in post-
production," the actress laughs. "In a way, I'm kind of the star of
my own show."

Added 12 pics from Brenda's brief (and speechless) appearance in
last Sunday's Desperate Housewives episode "Guilty".
Also, there are new and better pictures from the original Starship
Troopers (the good one).

Brenda's movie "Exposed" will be airing on Showtime Women through
December. As far as I know, this movie is not available on video/DVD
yet and God knows when it will be. So if any of you can get some
screen caps or just send some comments about the movie, I'll
appreciate it. Thanks.

Luis

"Jerry Seinfeld is returning to NBC, along with TV pals Elaine,
George and Kramer, for a special Thanksgiving Day retrospective on
the smash hit "show about nothing", the network said Thursday.

The planned Nov. 25 broadcast, highlighting the origins
of "Seinfeld" and the early years of the mega-hit comedy that ran on
NBC for nine years, is timed for two days after the DVD release of
the series.

Seinfeld himself will host the hour-long special, featuring clips
from the show and interviews with co-creator Larry David and co-
stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine), Jason Alexander (George) and
Michael Richards (Kramer)."

Don't know if Brenda will be featured in this special, but I thought
Seinfeld fans out there might be interested.

Added 8 pics from Brenda's guest spot in the Malcom in the Middle
episode "Family Reunion". Also, the Everwood album is now completed
with new and better pictures from "The Unveiling".
By the way, the Desperate Housewives forum on ABC.COM has been down
for a day or two. Hope it's not because of all the messages we've
been posting.
Have fun.

Luis

This is exactly what I feared: When they shot the original pilot you
could see Sheryl Lee in every promotional picture of the show. But
since she was replaced, you can hardly see Brenda anywhere. I hope
this is not what Marc Cherry ment when he said he was "personally
just sick" about having to recast.
Well, I'm off to post a few messages on the Desperate Housewives
board at ABC.COM

Luis

Hi all,

Got this just now from Brenda...

Hello Everyone!
I've never in the span of my career asked you all to help, but in
this case I need it!  In case you haven't heard, I have a new show
called Desperate Housewives on ABC Sunday nights at 9pm.  Finally a
hit show, with great writing!!!!  However there is a catch.  In the
Pilot Episode I (Mary Alice)commit suicide and even though I'm a
series regular (I narrate every episode) I need a little help from
the "fans" so to speak (this is where you come in)  go to ABC.COM
click on Desperate Housewives, go to the message boards and start to
as questions or make comments like:
1. When are we going to see why Mary Alice was desperate enough to
kill herself?
2. I'd love to see more back story on the Young family, there are so
many hidden secrets there it would be great to see flashbacks as to
what the *****was going on with Mary Alice.
3. Whats up with the name Angela?  Who is Mary Alice really?
4.  Brenda Strong adds so much to the show, I want to see more of
her than just hear her voice!
5.  I would love to see more flashbacks with The Women of Wisteria
Lane before the suicide...I love the scenes where Mary Alice is with
everybody else.
You get the idea...
I really need your help to bump ABC and the writers awareness of
Mary Alice on this show...I love the show and am so happy to be part
of it, bu I need you to do what you can, and keep the mail to them
coming about Mary Alice!!!! (Please let all of the names in your
address book to do the same and will have a ground swelling
movement!)
In the meantime, I hope this finds each and everyone of you in good
health, happy, and voting today!
All the best,
Brenda

Added 8 pics from Brenda's brief appearance in the movie Missing
Brendan (with a final "n").

Added 8 new pics from the 3rd episode of Desperate Housewives.
I've also revamped the Black Dog album with better pics.

Luis

Added 20 new pics from the pilot episode of Desperate Housewives.
Brenda will only appear on screen in some episodes (though she
narrates all of them in voice-over). Her next on screen appearance
will be this coming sunday in episode 3, "Pretty Little Picture".
I'm happy to say that I like this show as much as I hate Everwood,
by the way. And now that I've mentioned that fucking show, I've also
revamped the Everwood and the MacGyver albums with better pictures
(in the case of Everwood, only the first two episodes, but I'll take
care of "The Unveiling" in the future).

Luis

Brenda will be in the 10/3 episode of TV series "Desperate
Housewives" as Mary - Sunday night 10/3 9/8c on ABC. Apparently she
dies in this show (too!), but continues as the narrator...